The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1887-03-18
The Story Of the Dollar.


umph.
The Story Of the Dollar.
The word dollar was officially adopt
ed in the coinage of the United States.
says the Boston Beacon. by the resolu-
ton of Congress passed on July 9Th,
3, which provided that the money
Of the United States shall be a
lar" \ resolution of August Sth,
), provided that this dollar should
tain 1864 grains pure silver. But
mint was not established until 1792,
was then required to coin silver
'ars containing 371.25 grains of pure
1.-THE same amount contained in
standard silver dollar of the pres
day. This was done upon the re-
'mendation of no less man than
xander Hamilton (see his famous
treport of 1191). But no dollars
=, coined until 1894, and the first of
II were irregular. They command
'ice of about 800 each. But in
the coinage of regular dollars be-
This American dollar was an
ptation Of the Spanish milled dol
a coin very popular wherever the
niards, once the leading power of
world, traded. But the Spaniards
ed their dollars '.piastres,' an Ital-
,,." word meaning simply flat piece of
metal. The word "piastre" is the same
as ':plaster.' In Spanish it means a
plaster and paving. 1t is fair theory
to think that the first German ''thalers"
were taken to Spain by Charles V, and
that the Sponiards called them '.pias-
tres" for the same reason that we call
them ..cartwheels." 1t is an odd coin
dence that the Spaniards called the
large silvar dollar the plaster" dollar,
and that the paper dollars as well as
fractional paper money were contempt
uously called "shin plasters" by our
people, especially during the revolution
arv and civil wars. The word dollar is
duly entered in Baileys England Die
tionary" of 1445. and was used repeat
edly by Shakspere at the beginning of
the seventeenth century especially in
Macbeth i. 2, 60: Till the disbursed
ten thousand dollars to our gen.
eral use" See also the Tempest ii, l,
l.. The question where Shakspere
found the word dollar is easily answer
ed bv the fact the Hanseatic towns
maintained Il great establishment, call
ed the Steel Yard. in London. The
Steel-Y Yard merchants were mostly
North Germans who would call the
German thaler as if it was spelt :.dah-
ler.' These same merchants occasion
ed the word sterling, an abbreviation of
''easterling.' As the Hanseatic trade
was particularly brisk on the Baltic
and in Russia, the standard coins Of
the Hanse merchants were called east
erlings, and stearling came to mean
something genuine and desirable. 1t
is probable also that the Spanish pias-
tres found their way to England and
were called dollars. The German mer-
chants maintained their London estab-
lishment from at least 1859 to 1852,
and occasioned also the word ''steel-
yard' for the weighing instrument
they used. The word dollar is the
English for thaler, the first of which
was coined about 1896, and correspond
ed quite closely to our present Ameri-
can silver dollars The word thaler
means .'comlng from dale or valley
the first dollars having been coined in
a Bohemian valley called Foachimsthal.
1t was under Charles V, the Emperor
of Germany, King of Spain and Lord
of Spanish America, that the German
thaler became the coin of the world
| 1t is curious fact that most names of
English coins, ancient and modern, ex-
cept sovereign and florin, are of Ger
manic origin pounds, crowns. shillings,
pence. groatS. t;lrthingS. guilderS.
marks. sterling, etc.), while our Amer
lean dimes. cents and mills. as well as
our eagles, are of Latin origin.
The first big fish story-that of Jonah
The key to life's mysterv-1'he Mon
key.
Hops are plentiful when the dancing
season sets in.